Monday, January 19, 2009

Robbie has been accepted to BYU-Hawaii for fall. He is very excited. We visited the campus while we were in Hawaii and he was very sure that was where he wanted to go. It is a long ways away but will be a great experience for him.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

White Christmas

I am still trying to figure out exactly how to do this. Sorry for the sideways pictures. We returned to Seattle in time to see the snow left from they most snow they've had in ten years! The boys didn't miss much school because they had a late start every day and no school Thursday and Friday. There was no early morning seminary all week! The pictures are from playing in the snow on Christmas day.

I remembered what we did on Wednesday. We went to the swap meet! We spent a long time there shopping and trying different fruits and things. The boys felt like they got great deals and spent all their money and found Christmas presents for everyone on their lists! Later we went to Waikiki beach and that is where we first tried snorkeling. We saw some angel fish. It was overcast so we went back to the pool and hottub. It rained while we were in the hottub and pool. That night we walked around shopping again and went and bought cookies from the guy who started Famous Amos cookies and then lost the naming rights somehow. His name is Wally Amos and we met him and bought cookies.

I somehow posted before I was ready. Anyway, on Friday we went snorkeling at Hanama Bay. This was a little scary for me. I am not a great swimmer. Robbie also didn't like it that much. He swallowed a lot of salt water. Gavin and Jacob were naturals. Jacob could float all day. I think the boys should have been grateful for all of those swimming lessons I made them take! We went from there back to Kailua or something like that and rented sea kayaks, something I have always wanted to do. I thought that was really fun! Gavin didn't like it very much. The kayak kept hitting him when he tried to go in the water. I think he didn't watch the video very closely. We decided to go out for a nice dinner that evening. We went to a fancy restaurant with an aquarium. The food was really good. We had a coupon but forgot to mention it so we ordered the chef's special which included soup or salad and a dessert, then the coupon was no good, so it was an expensive dinner but we enjoyed it. The soup was cream of asparagus with crab meat and it was delicious! Robbie thought the food was the best he'd ever tasted! He especially loved the salmon dip the served with the bread and his seafood fetuchinni. He saved a lot to eat another day since he has shrunk his stomach not eating to stay at weight for wrestling. It was fun.

Saturday we got to spend the day with my cousin and his family. We went snorkeling again at Shark's cove. We enjoyed this more than Hanama Bay. It was way less crowded and rocks instead of coral so you weren't afraid you would get cut. There was also a lot of shallow water for the kids to play in and build sand castles and Jacob had a friend to play with. We went to Matsimotos for shaved ice and then to the dole plantation to see how pineapples grow. We didn't do the tour. We went back to David's house for dinner and a movie. It was lots of fun. Every day I thought was the best day yet.

The next day we went to church. I loved the historic tabernacle in Honolulu. It is the most beautiful church building I have seen. I also loved that they had decorated the library for Christmas. We learned a little bit of the history of the building from a couple we talked to outside who are also from the Seattle area originally. It was dedicated in July of 1941. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, shells fell all over that area, but none hit the church grounds or building. They building is white with a beautiful rectangle of water in the front and a mosaic of Christ. The inside was also beautiful and had great acoustics. Wow, Hawaiins have beautiful voices! We were lucky to be there for their Christmas program. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We went from there to Pearl Harbor. That was also fascinating. I realized how much I don't know, I need to read a book about it. Then we hiked to a waterfall even though I had on high heeled sandels and Robbie and Gavin had on flip flops. It was the only way we could get the boys to hike, when they were captive in the car! I hike pretty well even in sandals! It was a really nice day. Like I said, every day was the best!

Monday we went back to the North Shore. Robbie wanted to check out BYU Hawaii once more and make his face known to the admissions director which he did. We also went to the temple visitors center where we got the great picture posted earlier. We then went to Waimai Bay after picking up my cousin's son so he could play with Jacob. Robbie and Gavin jumped off large rocks into the bay. There were decent waves so Jacob and Andrew had fun boogie boarding. We had to rush back to Waikiki because we had tickets to Cirque D'Hawaii. This was also a really great show. I thought it was amazing!

Tuesday we had to come back to Seattle and the snow that everyone had been dealing with.

I loved the time we spent in Hawaii. The first day we were there we sent the boys to the pool and we went grocery shopping at Safeway. We had a kitchen in our suite. The prices were eye opening! Then we walked down to Waikiki Beach and walked around the stores some after we ate dinner. The next day we went beach hopping from one beach to another. Robbie's goal was to take a nap at every beach we stopped at. I think he accomplished his goal. We also had to stop the first day at some of the places we had been told to eat. We stopped at Ted's Bakery near Sunset Beach where I had chocolate pie and everyone else had various delicious items. We also saw a monk seal at Sunset Beach taking a snooze. It was huge. As usual we didn't have a camera with us so we can't show you a picture. I don't thik Robbie and Gavin saw it. Gavin was trying the nap on the beach thing too. I found I could sit on the beach happily for a long time. We also saw whales blowing far out in the water and slapping their tails. We ate hamburgers Kai'aina Sandwich Shop or something like that. I had trouble with the Hawaiin names. The boys said they were the best cheeseburgers ever! I wouldn't know because I had a fish sandwich. We found out lots of restaurants only take cash. That was interesting! We found there were not a lot of things to do at night except walk around to the different shops and see the interesting street performers. Sometimes we just watched TV.

We enjoyed going to the PCC. We didn't have time to see everything at all the villages. The Luau and the show were lots of fun. I picked the picture of the Tahiti girls because Robbie said he liked them best. You know all the shaking of hips.